Nginx password protect one domain and avoid config duplication

configurationnginx

I got 2 domains dev.domain.com and beta.domain.com. At the moment I have one server section (default) with a bunch of specific locations and rules. Now I need to password protect beta.domain.com. Is there a way to do this without creating additional server section and essentially duplicating all my location and other rules?

Generally I would like to know how other people manage complex nginx configurations. Do they just copy sections (duplicate) or include common rules somehow?

Best Answer

The simplest way to share a configuration between multiple server blocks, is using the include directive. For instance:

/etc/nginx/conf.d/mysite.inc:

#...locations and rules...

/etc/nginx/sites-available/dev.domain.com:

server {
    server_name dev.domain.com;
    root /path/to/root;
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/mysite.inc;
}

/etc/nginx/sites-available/beta.domain.com:

server {
    server_name beta.domain.com;
    root /path/to/root;
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/mysite.inc;
    location / {
        auth_basic "Authentication Required";
        auth_basic_user_file  /path/to/authfile;
    }
}

Correct way in new versions of nginx

Turn out my first answer to this question was correct at certain time, but it turned into another pitfall - to stay up to date please check Taxing rewrite pitfalls

I have been corrected by many SE users, so the credit goes to them, but more importantly, here is the correct code:

server {
       listen         80;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       return         301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
       listen         443 ssl;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       # add Strict-Transport-Security to prevent man in the middle attacks
       add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always; 

       [....]
}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

nginx HTTPS – How to Serve HTTPS with Same Config as HTTP

NGINX Redirect – How to Rewrite All HTTP Requests to HTTPS While Maintaining Sub-Domain

Correct way in new versions of nginx

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